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Mijares still an easy mark for top 122 lb fighters

October 28th, 2012 - Comments Closed

By Dan Ambrose: Cristian Mijares (47-6-2, 22 KO’s) did a good job of rallying and stopping a WAY past his best 37-year-old former two division world champion Rafael Marquez (41-8, 37 KO’s) in the 9th round at the Arena Cuidad de Mexico. Distito Federal, Mexico.

The World Boxing Council at Marquez ranked an unbelievable #2 for some reason, and had him ranked above arguably much better fighters than him at this point in his career like Vic Darchinyan, Kiko Martinez and Fernando Montiel. What this means is that the 31-year-old Mijares could find himself getting a huge push up in the super bantamweight rankings to where he could find himself fighting WBC champion Abner Mares in the near future or Anselmo Moreno if he beats Mares next month in their fight.

I really don’t see Mijares as good as his win over Marquez would have you believe. I think Mijares is a shot fighter despite being only 31. He’s not as quick as he was when he held down the WBA and WBC super flyweight titles years ago. Mijares has been fighting as a pro for 15 years, and that’s a long time.

Right now I think Mijares would have huge problems against the top contenders in the division such as Victor Terrazas, Martinez, Alexander Bakhtin, Carl Frampton, and Montiel. And the champions Guillermo Rigondeaux, Nonito Donaire, and Mares would be way too much for Mijares to handle.

What Mijares needs to do is lose weight and move back down to super flyweight because he can’t beat the top fighters at super bantamweight. He can beat a fighter with an inflated ranking like Rafael Marquez, but that guy had no business being ranked that highly in the first place by the WBC. I don’t think Mijares could beat bantamweight champions Anselmo Moreno, Leo Santa Cruz or Shinsuke Yamanaka.